Some of you treat the “yetzer horah” as some type of living, active and uncontrollable force in our lives separate from our mainstream existence. Yes, we have urges of all types, both spiritual and physical, that may not be good for us but we also have the strength and discipline in most cases to push back on most, albeit not all, of these urges. We know not to start eating ice cream directly from the quart container, lest we end up eating most of it. Rather we dole out a small portion in a cup to discipline our culinary gluttony. Likewise, we don’t willingly set ourselves up to be alone with a woman not our wives on a business trip to avoid both inappropriate business outcomes, but more importantly, our spiritual geder that shields us from what some might call the siren song of our yetzer horah. Do we always show such strength….obviously not but most of us seem to have won the large percentage of these battles w/o making the looming shadow of a yetzer horah the overriding focus of our daily lives.
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